


Meet the Blacks

by MarleneMinervaBlack



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family-centric (Harry Potter), Brothers, F/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarleneMinervaBlack/pseuds/MarleneMinervaBlack
Summary: Sirius and Regulus get ready for a wedding and Sirius gives his brother some relationship advice. Later Narcissa joins them but the brothers are surprised by an uncharacteristic show of emotion by their cousin. A Black Family one shot
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy & Andromeda Black Tonks, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Regulus Black & Sirius Black & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Sirius Black & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Sirius Black & Walburga Black
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	Meet the Blacks

Sirius Black looked at his reflection in the mirror and grimaced. He was wearing the traditional black velvet dress robes over a blue dress shirt and black trousers. His long black hair were tied up in a bun at the back of his head. He still had to wear the silver tie which he knew would probably suffocate him to death. He knew he was looking good, he always did. No matter what he wore, he would just smile and wink and get any girl he wanted.

But he didn't feel good in these clothes. He was far from comfortable. He looked like a proper pureblood heir of The Most Nobel and Ancient House of Black and he hated that. He hated his family, especially his parents and he hated being a Black.

Sirius bit his lip and opened the top few buttons of his shirt to look at the bruises formed around his neck in the form of his mother's fingers. He had gotten them just an hour ago when he had refused to go to a pureblood wedding dressed up like a spiv. He was prepared for a few hexes that he was sure his mother would hit him with. He had an experience with that. What he hasn't experienced until then was his mother throttling him to the point that he wasn't able to breath properly. He had been so surprised that he hadn't even reacted at first and when he did, her grip was too tight for a fifteen year old to break from. He had tried to shout for his father but Orion Arcturus Black was probably too busy with his firewhiskey collection and the Black family accounts to come to rescue his Gryffindor and potentially blood traitor son from his own wife. His mother had kept cursing him and tightening her grip. Just when he was on the verge of losing consciousness, Regulus, his little brother had entered the room with Uncle Alphard at his heels. If it wasn't for her elder brother's scolding, Walburga Black would probably have murdered her son today.

Any normal teenager would have cried or be depressed about his mother attempting to kill him but after more than four years of being tortured by his mother, Sirius had become so immune that nothing his mother did bothered him that much. He knew that she herself was on the verge of madness. Anybody would be, if they lived in this prison of the house all alone except for a crazy, old house elf for company. His father lived here too, of course. But it wouldn't have been very different, if he didn't. Because most of his time was spent either in his study or outside the house, doing Merlin knows what. He didn't have a job, Sirius knew that much. Because, according to his parents, the Blacks were a royalty in the Wizarding World, therefore, they didn't need to work. There five Gringotts vault and Sirius' grandfather's seat in the Wizengamot was enough to give them a rich lifestyle. Sirius didn't care. He wasn't like his father.

He knew that he was not going to stay here for much longer. As soon as he graduated from Hogwarts, he would join the Auror Academy and rent a house with his stipend. He would then bring Regulus with him and they both would live happily away from their parents.

Regulus was the only reason that Sirius was still living at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. His best friend, James Potter has offered him to go and live at his place atleast a hundred times. The Potters were a lovely family and treated him just like their other son. In fact Sirius felt that Euphemia and Fleamont Potter loved him more than his own parents. But as much as he loved them and wanted to go and live with them, he wasn't going to burden them with both him and Regulus.

So Sirius Black waited and waited for the right time to leave this hell. Just Three more years, he told himself. Just three more years.

"Is it hurting?" His brother's voice brought him back to what he was doing.

He looked behind him at Regulus who was standing at the door of his room. He was dressed up already and wore the same black velvet dress robes but with a green dress shirt underneath and a greyish tie.

"Naah", Sirius shrugged, "It has been worse before." He closed the upper buttons and picked up his own silver tie as Regulus moved to stand beside him in front of the large mirror of his dresser.

"She never tried to throttle you before." Regulus mumbled looking down at Sirius's dresser.

Sirius hated hearing the sadness in his brother's voice. Regulus was more sensitive than him. While Sirius had become immune, Regulus still cared about how their parents treated them. He looked at his younger brother's reflection. He was fourteen and looked just like him but with shorter and straight hair and ice blue eyes while Sirius' were grey. He was shorter then him too. A fact that Sirius' never failed to tease him about. But he knew that he won't be able to do it for much longer as Regulus' height was growing at a faster rate than his. He wasn't sure if quite liked that.

"I am fine, Reggie. Don't worry." He bumped his shoulder with Regulus and looked at him in the mirror. He looked at him too as Sirius bumped his shoulder again. A slow smile appeared on Regulus' face as he elbowed him back.

Sirius feigned hurt and turned towards his bed to find his socks. He sat down at the end of his bed to wear them. His black shoes with pointed tips were already present there, well polished by Kreacher. He looked up when he heard his brother speak again.

"Why do you even refuse? Why not just say yes when she asks you too go?" He sounded tired, like he had already asked this question so many times before. Which was true. They had already had this conversation hundreds of times.

So this time Sirius just gave him a look that said, 'You already know it, so don't ask.'

Regulus, who was leaning on the dresser with his back towards it, turned to look into the mirror, sighed and mumbled, "Bloody Gryffindor"

Sirius snorted. He knew that Regulus didn't really care about him being a Gryffindor and neither did Sirius care about Regulus being sorted into Slytherin but they never lost a chance to tease or taunt each other about their houses.

"So how did Uncle Alphard convince you to come, hmm?" Regulus asked as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

A slow smile appeared on Sirius face as he remembered his uncle's gift, well, bribe really.

Even after the drama that his mother had created, Sirius was adamant on his decision to not go to the wedding, until his uncle had promised him to give him Muggle magazines, not very different from the posters that he had pasted on his wall just at the beginning of this summer. He was going to get them just after coming back from the wedding. As much as Sirius hated pureblood parties, he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to get these magazines. He was a teenage boy, after all. So he had agreed. Uncle Alphard was one of the very few of his family members who had nothing against the muggles. But he also loved his family dearly, therefore kept his views to himself. Nevertheless, he was his favorite Uncle.

"Well, he promised to give me something I couldn't deny," Sirius replied, smirking.

Regulus raised his eyebrows and looked at Sirius through the mirror, "Well, it must be quite valuable, if it convinced you to come."

Sirius chuckled at this, "Oh, very valuable my little brother, I will show you when I get it." Sirius looked up to see Regulus scowling at the word little, but he didn't say anything else.

After a few moments of silence, Regulus spoke quietly and carefully. "Sirius?"

"Hmm", Sirius replied, busy tying his laces.

"Where is your Sleekeazy's hair potion?"

At this, Sirius looked up. Regulus had his back towards him and was looking at the mirror. "What do you need Sleekeazy's for?", he asked, confused.

"Oh, I just thought I would apply some on my face," he said deadpanned, looking at Sirius through his reflection.

"Waoo, you are funny." Sirius replied in the same tone as he moved back towards the dresser, done with his shoes. "But you never use it," Sirius said, curious now.

"I used it at the Christmas ball last year." Regulus mumbled but he wasn't meeting his eyes now so Sirius knew there was something that he wasn't saying.

"Yeah, but that was Christmas," he continued arguing. Still he went to his bathroom to get the bottle of the potion.

"Well, this is an important occasion too and you have applied it, why can't I?"

"Oh stop crying and take it," Sirius returned back into the room and passed him the bottle as he looked at his reflection for the final time. "And I never said you can't." He looked at Regulus again as Regulus opened the bottle. "I am just curious about the 'importance of this occasion'." He used his fingers to highlighting his last words.

"Its Daniel Greengrass' wedding." Regulus kept applying the potion in his hair without looking at Sirius.

"Have you ever even spoken to Daniel Greengrass before?" He turned Regulus around to face him and removed his hands from his hair to style them himself. Regulus protested a bit but then realized that Sirius would have a better idea and gave up.

"No... But it's a Greengrass wedding."

"And?" Sirius continued working on his hair.

"And Marlene's mother is a Greengrass."

Sirius stopped and looked down at his brother who flushed a bit. And then Sirius laughed and laughed so loud that his mother had to send Kreacher to 'stop the brat from laughing so loud' .

He lowered his volume as Kreacher apparated out of the room but still kept laughing.

"Shut up Sirius." Regulus mumbled, already embarrassed.

Sirius laughed even more at that and Regulus glared at him. Sirius snorted, "Oh Reggie, sometimes you are worse than James." He chuckled.

Sirius was aware about his brother's attraction towards the youngest Mckinnon. He had been pining after her for months now. Marlene was a Gryffindor in Regulus' year but she had been so close to James and Remus even before Hogwarts that she was more or less an honorary Marauder.

"Yeah, well Marlene's at least worth it." Regulus replied like a true Slytherin.

At this, Sirius narrowed his eyes at his brother, all laughter gone. Regulus noticed this too, "I mean Marlene has never rejected me like Evans rejects Potter every other day."

Sirius snorted and went back to styling the younger Black's hair. "And that has nothing to do with the fact that you haven't even told her how you feel about her."

Regulus sighed but didn't say anything. He waited for Sirius to finish and then went to sit on his bed, without any word.

Sirius turned around too and leaned with his back on the dresser to look at his brother. "Reggie" Regulus looked up at him. "What is it?"

Regulus stared at his brother without giving out any expression.

Sirius knew that he was just contemplating how to tell him so he waited for him to open up and after a few moments Regulus did open up.

"She is a good friend, you know? I don't want to loose her. I mean what if she doesn't feel the same for me? She would stop talking to me, won't she? And I don't want that. Even if she doesn't like me the same way, I want to remain her friend. But that won't be possible once I tell her about my feelings because she will stop speaking to me then."

"She will not stop talking to you, Reg."

"She did, with you."

"Because she needed her time to move on and when she got over her feelings, we started talking again and we are absolutely normal now."

"Yeah, but... I mean.."

Sirius sighed and moved to sit beside his brother. "What is it, really?" He asked looking at Regulus.

Regulus became silent again and looked down at his lap. Then, when Sirius started thinking he wasn't going to get any more answers, Regulus whispered. "What if she hasn't really moved on from you?"

Sirius didn't know what he expected Regulus to say but this was definitely not it. "She doesn't... I mean why would she.."

Marlene had a crush on him at the beginning of last year. She was helping them to research about Animagi and it was around that time that she had developed feelings for him, as far as he knew. But she wasn't really Sirius' type. She was a romantic while Sirius had a new girl on his arm every other month. So when she had told him about her feelings just after his fifteenth birthday, Sirius had very politely refused. He had told her that he was not her type and that she was too good to be with someone like him. Just like any normal girl, Marlene had been hurt...and angry. She had given him a long lecture that he was no one to decide what is good for her and then stormed off crying. They hadn't spoken for months after that. He didn't know about Regulus' feelings earlier, so he had told him everything. He and Marlene had started talking again sometime around Easter.

"She is over me Reg, I know"

"How?"

"I spoke to Remus after you told me how you feel about her and... Remus... well...he knows her you know. They are best friends."

"Hmm. And what about you?" he seemed hesitant now.

"What about me?"

"Do you..." He didn't have to complete for Sirius to understand.

"Of course not, you dolt." He thumped Regulus at the back of his head. "I wouldn't have rejected her if I did."

Regulus chuckled but he seemed relaxed now.

"So are you gonna tell her now or you need more convincing?"

Sirius waited as Regulus thought about it. But just as he was about to say something, they heard a clicking of heels just outside his room and moments later Narcissa Black strolled into his room.

Narcissa was wearing a dark blue gown that hugged all the curves of her body and her blond hair were tied in a beautiful hair-do on the top of his head. She wore a smile that seemed just as real as the artificial flowers on the top of her head.

"Hello Cissa," Regulus got up from the bed and kissed her cheeks.

"Hey Cissy," Sirius greeted her, not even bothering to get up.

Narcissa murmured a 'hello', but then moved around them to the head of the bed and fell down on the bed with her head in the pillows.

Sirius turned to look back at her and smirked, "How very un-ladylike of you Narcissa to be lying on the bed like this in front of your male cousins? Where are your manners?" he said in the perfect imitation of her mother, Druella Black.

Regulus snickered as he moved to sit on the other side of the bed and Narcissa threw one of the pillows at Sirius without looking up.

Sirius laughed as he caught the pillow.

Among all three of the Black sisters, Andromeda was his favorite. But he and Narcissa shared a bond that no one else understood. She was just an year older than him and he loved teasing and fighting with her. She returned the favor without any complaints.

But his laughter vanished just as he heard a sob coming from her. Never ever had he seen Narcissa cry before. Not even when they were four and five and he had blasted her favorite doll due to accidental magic when he was angry with her. While it was an unsaid understanding between the three of them, after Bella and Andy had gotten married; that they could let their guards down in front of each other, crying was something that just never came to any of them. So saying that he was shocked to hear her sobbing was a huge understatement. He looked at Regulus to find him looking back. He seemed just as shocked as Sirius felt.

"Cissy?" He called her gently as Regulus moved his hand over her head, maybe trying to soothe her. A trick, Sirius was sure that he learned from Marlene.

Narcissa didn't reply but her shoulders were shaking lightly. Regulus kept moving his hand over her head as Sirius waited. He picked up his wand and locked the door, not wanting any of their parents to see her like this and then berate her for crying.

After a few minutes, she became still. She then got up and went inside the bathroom to wash her face. Sirius looked at Regulus in order to ask what to do. Regulus just shrugged. They both kept looking at the closed bathroom door until it opened and Narcissa came out. She didn't appear anything like she had been crying moments before. But she seemed extremely sad. He had seen her like this only once before when Andromeda had eloped with Ted Tonks, a muggleborn and Narcissa had been asked not to speak to her ever again. But even then, she had not cried.

She moved to sit opposite Regulus, facing Sirius and rested her head on the headrest. All this time Sirius and Regulus were just staring at her, afraid to ask what had made her react like this.

"Cissy?", Regulus asked finally.

She was silent for a few moments but then she looked up at Sirius and said quietly. "Bella sent a letter today. She and Rudy were supposed to visit for dinner last night. She wrote that they couldn't come because their Master had given her a task that she had to complete last night." She paused and Sirius had a very sick feeling about what she was going to say.

"There was a Death Eater attack in Falmouth last night. A Muggleborn's whole family. Three children under ten and the parents. The wife was pregnant. All tortured and murdered."

Sirius closed his eyes. All three of them fell silent as they contemplated what she had said and what she meant.

Regulus broke the silence as he spoke quietly and tentatively. "But Cissy, it could be possible that Bella was talking about something else. Maybe she was..."

But before Regulus could complete, Cissy was shaking her head, "Abraxus came by this morning. I overheard him congratulating Father for Bella's success." She looked at Sirius again. "They would make us join too Sirius."

"There is no way in hell I am joining Voldy's group of murdering lunatics." He looked at both Regulus and Narcissa in turns and said, "And neither am I going to let anyone force you two to join him."

As Sirius said this a new wave of tears fells down Narcissa's cheek. Sirius didn't know how to handle her. But then he remembered something Marlene had said to him when he had met her for the very first time.

"Sometimes a hug and a kiss could do wonders."

So he just pulled Narcissa towards him and hugged her tightly as she cried on his shoulder. Regulus moved forward too and started rubbing her back.

So Bellatrix really was a Death Eater now. They had known that Cygnus had being an ardent follower of Voldemort since Day one. They also knew that even though Walburga and Orion weren't Death Eaters, they supported his cause with everything they had. But this was different, this was Bella, the eldest of their generation. Their elder sister who had played with them and protected them when they were small. Now she was one of them.

Sirius would be lying if he said that he wasn't expecting it. Because Bella has been changing for a long time now. Ever since her last year at Hogwarts, when she had first met the Dark Lord , she had been changing. But he couldn't say all that to Narcissa right now because while growing up, Narcissa had adored both of her sisters and now they were both pulled away from her just because of some stupid pureblood prejudices. He couldn't even imagine what she must be going through now. He didn't know what he would do if something like that happened to Regulus. No. He won't let anything happen to his little brother. He looked at Regulus who was staring at Narcissa as he rubbed her back. She was still crying. Regulus' eyes were scared. Sirius moved one of his hands from around Narcissa and pulled Regulus into the hug too.

The three of them sat their for a long moment even after Narcissa had stopped crying, silently promising each other that they won't leave and that they would protect each other.

They broke apart only when they were called downstairs to leave for the wedding.


End file.
